By Shannon Yarbrough on June 21, 2009
In the year 2000, I worked as an assistant manager at Bookstar in Memphis. Once a month, we scanned every book in the entire store to make sure it was shelved properly and to pull returns which were shipped back to publishers for credit. Returns are books that the home office inventory control department deem as being overstocked or slow sellers. That’s right. The life of a book on your local B&N shelf is regulated like stale pastries being rotated in a bakery. Hardcover books that are about to be released in paperback might also come up as having to be returned, which is how I came upon one book in particular one slow evening. It was a lone hardcover copy of Matthew Stadler’s Allan Stein.
Posted in Opinions, Self-Publishing, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged allan stein, clear cut press, lulu.com, matthew stadler, POD, print on demand, public, publication, publish, publishing, Self-Publishing, suddenly.org, why do we publish, why publish, why self publish |
By LK Gardner-Griffie on June 20, 2009
Here at the LL Book Review, we have reviewed a wide variety of books in a little over a year. Fiction, non-fiction, children’s and young adult, memoirs, and mysteries, to philosophical tomes that give us a new way of thinking. One thing all of the books reviewed have in common is they are all written by authors who believe in their work enough to pursue the hard road of self-publishing.
Posted in Childrens, LK Gardner-Griffie | Tagged book review, childrens books, frog books, Joshua Smith, LK Gardner-Griffie, lulu.com, misfit mccabe, POD |
By Shannon Yarbrough on June 8, 2009
What can I say? It’s been a great year for me as an author and for my book, Stealing Wishes. As many know, I’ve documented my publishing journey over the past year here as the POD Diary. From pulling my hair out while creating my own book cover over a year ago to recording every [...]
Posted in Announcements, POD Diary, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged amazon.com, lulu.com, POD, POD author, pod book sales, POD Diary, pod journal, print on demand, Self-Publishing, self-publishing journal, Shannon Yarbrough, stealing wishes |
By Shannon Yarbrough on June 1, 2009
Although our new blog has been up and running for two weeks now, June 1st was our original target date for all of this to happen. But I have to thank LK and Dan, my fellow reviewers, for making this all happen so quickly. I haven’t come across anyone yet who hasn’t liked the changes we made. The feedback from our guest book has all been positive. But I still wanted to take a moment to explain why we made these changes. I’d also like to point out some of the advantages our new blog presents to its readers.
Posted in Announcements, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged CreateSpace, llbookreview, LLBR, lulu.com, print on demand, Self-Publishing, welcome, Wordclay |
By Shannon Yarbrough on May 28, 2009
I received a hard copy of Anthony R. Fanning’s book in the mail a few months ago. Opening the package, I discovered the book was wrapped in brown paper tied with cotton twine much like a treasure map. What a cool marketing idea, I thought! It really gave me a nice visual introduction to the book. Unwrapping the paper, I discovered a nice little 4.25″ x 6.88″ pocket size book totaling 430 pages and only 19 chapters! But it’s orange cover (the author has since changed the color) and pencil drawing of a young girl standing in front of an Old World Caribbean map appealed to me even more. I usually frown at 300+ pages in any book, but the small size of this book made it read more like 215.
Posted in Action/Adventure, Historical, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged anthony r. fanning, isle of lost souls, lulu.com, natalie's good fortune, pirates, treasure island |
By Shannon Yarbrough on May 27, 2009
Yesterday, I posted about an email blast I got from Lulu saying my book had been picked to be part of the Amazon Marketplace program. Today, I have more information to add to that for the authors who are in the dark just as much as I am over the information presented in this Lulu email, or lack thereof.
Posted in Marketing, News, Opinions, Sales, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged alisiyad, amazon lulu listing, amazon marketplace, amazon z store, lulu joins marketplace, lulu marketplace, lulu.com, lulupress, sarah suleski, selling on amazon |
By Shannon Yarbrough on May 26, 2009
Back on May 12th, I did a random search on Amazon.com for my book, Stealing Wishes, and found an odd separate listing for my book. It had no picture and only had one copy for sell by a third party seller. I promptly clicked on this link only to find the seller’s name was LuluPress. You can view the listing here, although the copy that was for sale and even the name of my book has since been removed from it. You can view LuluPress’s profile here. I decided to email LuluPress asking if their authors received royalties for these Marketplace sales. They replied two days later with a simple “yes.” So, I left it at that.
Posted in Announcements, Opinions, Sales, Shannon Yarbrough | Tagged amazon marketplace, amazon.com, booksurge, Lulu, lulu joins marketplace, lulu.com, lulu.com amazon.com marketplace |
By Julie Elizabeth Powell on May 22, 2009
Straight into the action and more importantly, into the character’s mind. Blood Of Power Unredeemed, has an open, clear style that creates a fabulous atmosphere, where scenes leap out and grab the reader, pulling all further into the story.
Posted in Quick Picks, Reviews | Tagged 70689AD, a r leggett, aleksander granger, blood of power unredeemed, julie powell, lulu book review, lulu.com, nut brown eyes, raymond walker |
By LK Gardner-Griffie on May 19, 2009
Crosswords, acrostics, logic problems, word search, all of these were a big part of my youth. I could spend hours with a puzzle book figuring out the answers and filling them in. Sudoku had not yet come into vogue, or I’m sure I would have spent many a pleasurable hour working on those as well. With More Kindergarten Sudoku: 4×4 Classic Sudoku Puzzles for Kids
I got my first taste of Sudoku and was able to enjoy for the first time what has become all the rage in puzzle books. For the other Sudoku novices in the audience who have been wondering what this is but afraid to try and learn the rules, fear no more.
Posted in Childrens, Educational, LK Gardner-Griffie | Tagged kids activity book, kindergarten sudoku, lulu book review, lulu.com, nicola kattan, peter kattan |
By Guest Reviewers on May 14, 2009
I did enjoy Marva Dasef’s charming Tales Of A Texas Boy, with its bonus insight into past events and lifestyles. Based on her father’s reminiscence, these appealing stories take us back to 1930s Texas during the Depression era when life was very different. Each tale begins with an explanatory paragraph and is embellished with wonderful old family photos appropriate to the story. Modeled on Dasef’s father, “Eddie” narrates with a touch of dialect so natural it was as if I could hear his voice inside my head.
Posted in Historical, Linda Welch | Tagged Lulu, lulu book review, lulu.com, marva dasef, tales of a texas boy |
